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Have a career that matters

We're hiring more Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and we want you to join us,

As the key link with communities across Sussex, our PCSOs play a critical and visible role in helping keep our communities safe, identifying and protecting the most vulnerable, and preventing harm.

In return we promise you a good starting salary, great training experiences, opportunities for progression, the chance to achieve a professional qualification - Level 4 Diploma in Community Policing Practice - and the pride that comes from helping others.

 

The role

Our PCSOs play a vital part in keeping Sussex safe.

Being a PCSO offers a challenging, yet incredibly rewarding career. Working alongside our policing prevention teams to prevent and tackle local issues; you'll be out and about on the streets of Sussex, building relationships and winning the trust of the public.

You will encounter a range of situations; from dealing with anti-social behaviour, taking statements from victims of crimes, to providing reassurance and helping resolve community challenges. You'll be the face of local policing for the community, ensuring we meet our policing priorities. Some of the duties you could find yourself doing include:

  • Going on highly visible foot patrols.
  • Reassuring the public after minor crimes or anti-social behaviour.
  • Building relationships with community, religious and business leaders.
  • Working with young people and local schools.
  • Making house visits to gather intelligence.
  • Collecting CCTV evidence.
  • Carrying out missing person inquiries.
  • Protecting crime scenes until police officers arrive.
  • Providing crime prevention and personal safety advice.
  • Offering support at large public gatherings such as sports events and public demonstration.

While PCSOs do not have powers of arrest and cannot interview or process prisoners, they do have powers for a wide range of situations, including issuing fixed penalty notices, requiring contact details and seizing drugs. 

You can find out more about PCSO powers here

By successfully completing the recruitment process, you will join Sussex Police as a PCSO through our new 12 month apprenticeship programme. This will give you the best possible training and, upon successful completion, you will achieve a Level 4 Diploma in Community Policing Practice - equivalent to a Higher National Certificate (HNC) or the first year of an undergraduate degree.

Could this be you?

As the first point of contact for the community, you'll need to be a great communicator; calm, confident and compassionate. You'll need to be able to listen carefully, think through challenges and find solutions. Above all, you'll simply care about the community and want to do what you can to keep it safe.

It's a challenging role, but also incredibly rewarding. If you want to help keep your community safe, then join us now and help make a difference together.

Are you eligible?

The following are our key eligibility criteria:

  • You must be aged 18 or over at the date of application - there is no upper age limit.
  • You must have lived in the UK for three continuous years immediately prior to application.
  • Have leave to remain and work in the UK for an indefinite period.
  • Have a full UK manual driving licence (by the time of appointment).
  • Not be a member of the British National Part (BNP) or other relevant organisations.
  • Not have tattoos which could cause offence (please see our PCSO Guide).
  • Not have more than six points on your driving licence.
  • Not have served a prison sentence.

It is a requirement of the apprenticeship completion that individuals must have attained a level 2 functional skills/ GCSE A* to C in Maths and English. If you do not have these at the time of your appointment  as a PCSO, we will support you in achieving these alongside your apprenticeship studies.

For all our eligibility criteria, please see the Guide to be coming a PCSO

What we offer you

We value all our staff and provide many benefits including:

  • Starting salary of £22,047, plus an unsocial hours allowance in the region of £5,000 per year.
  • Fully funded professional qualification - Level 4 Diploma in Community Policing Practice.
  • 177.6 hours per year of annual leave, rising to 214.6 hours after 5 years' service. (An average full time PCSO working day is 8.25 hours, so this equates to approximately 21 days per year, rising to 25 days). 8 public holiday days per year.
  • a competitive benefits package including pension, flexible benefits, employee assistance programme for advice and counselling, access to discounts/savings/cashback rewards.
  • A progressive approach to flexible working, enhanced maternity and paternity leave and potential for a career break (after 2 years' service).
  • Opportunities to join various staff support networks, staff associations and sports clubs.

 

Additional information

As a PCSO you will have a rotating shift pattern covering the full week, Monday to Sunday between the hours of 8:00am and midnight, so you will need to be prepared to work weekends and bank holidays, a copy of the standard pattern is attached to this advert.

We are looking for successful applicants to join us on intakes in October 2020 and February 2021.

the role of PCSO is tenured for 24 months, meaning that you will not be able to start a new position within the force during this time, you may however be able to apply for roles with longer recruitment timeframes, such as police officer.

In addition to standard vetting requirements, successful candidates will be required to complete biometric vetting too. This means that once you have completed the selection process you will need to consent to supply fingerprints and DNA samples for speculative searching against local and national databases and the results of these searches will need to meet the required standard for employment to be confirmed. Upon appointment the fingerprint and DNA samples will be added and retained on the Police Elimination Database to be used for elimination purposes.

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